Cruz Fights Alone to Stop Senate from Funding Planned Parenthood and Iran Nuclear Deal
By Jerry A. Kane
Last night Ted Cruz couldn’t get his Republican Senate colleagues to back his proposed amendment to stop funding Planned Parenthood for one year and to prevent the Obama administration from using funds to implement the Iran nuclear deal until Congress can examine the additional agreements or “side deals” between the terrorist state and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
“You know, Obama has negotiated a catastrophic nuclear deal with Iran. Republican leadership goes on television all the time and rightly says this is a catastrophic deal. I would suggest that if we actually believed the words that are coming out of their mouths, then we should be willing to use any and all constitutional authorities,” Cruz said.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tore a page from former Democrat Leader Harry Reid’s playbook and “filled the tree” with amendments and blocked Cruz from offering his amendment during a voice vote.
McConnell used the same tactic in July to block Cruz from offering an amendment on the Iran nuclear deal to the highway bill. Mike Lee (R-Utah) was the only senator to back Cruz on offering his amendment.
Cruz then asked for a roll call vote on overruling the decision, but his Republican colleagues sat on their hands, refusing to give him a “sufficient second” (11 senators) to allow the vote. For the record, roll call votes have been routinely granted as procedural courtesy to senators in both parties.
“What does denying a second mean? Denying a recorded vote. Why is that important? When you are breaking the commitment you’ve made to the men and women who elected you, the most painful thing in the world is accountability,” Cruz said.
Overruled by McConnell and his deputies, his colleagues too frightened to oppose a bloated spending bill to fund executive amnesty, Obamacare, Planned Parenthood, the Iran deal, and other Democrat-Party priorities, Cruz stood alone on the Senate floor. But he wasn’t done and remained undaunted in criticizing the leadership and his colleagues.
He took to the microphone and delivered a powerful, brilliant indictment against the corrupt Republican establishment and its symbiotic relationship with the Democrat party and K Street lobbyists.
During his hour-long speech, Cruz chided Republican leadership for repeatedly surrendering to Obama; he exposed the dysfunction of Washington; and he lamented the betrayal of the electorate.
It takes a man of principled conviction and extraordinary courage to stand before the Senate, where collegiality is touted as the supreme virtue, and indict party leadership and colleagues to their face for their hypocrisy, dishonesty, and cowardice.
Cruz is that lone voice crying out in the wilderness for repentance to a reprobate Congress damned by God awaiting its day of reckoning. Right now, he is America’s most fearless orator and greatest statesmen, and it’s painful to know that most Americans will never realize that.
“[T]his is no longer a nation of independent individuals. … The whole world is becoming humanoid – creatures that look human but aren’t. The whole world, not just us. We’re just the most advanced country, so we’re getting there first. The whole world’s people are becoming mass-produced, programmed, numbered, insensate things…”
THE MILLSTONE DIARIES 